Caged nut fasteners are well known in the art and provide a useful function in that they are able to hold the threaded nut at locations in a frame that are difficult or in some cases impossible to reach and thus in many applications operate as what is known in the art as "blind fasteners".
Some early examples of caged nut fasteners are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,631,634; 2,649,126; 2,695,046 and 2,717,622, assigned to the assignee of the present invention and the disclosure of which are included herein by reference.
Other examples of caged nut fasteners are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,192,823; 3,217,772; 3,373,789; 4,015,650; 4,826,374; 4,863,327; 4,875,816; 5,022,804 and 5,096,350, the disclosures of which are included herein by reference.
In all of the caged nut fasteners disclosed in the above patents, the nut member features either a square or rectangular configured base portion that is generally restricted from moving in at least one direction transversely relative the central rotational axis of the threaded portion of the nut member thus reducing the alignment possibilities with a threaded member such as a bolt or screw. The caged nut fastener of the present invention overcomes such directional movement limitation heretofore placed upon nut members of caged nut fasteners by being configured to enable movement of the nut within the cage substantially the same distance in any direction that is generally transverse to the central rotational axis of the threaded portion of the nut to enhance alignment between the threaded portion of the nut and a threaded member such as a bolt or screw.